Note: Thank you to everybody who has reviewed! I'm gradually getting less ill, so I shall be doing far more writing! =)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money from this writing.
8: A Little Faith
Black. Nothing but black and the footsteps, heavy boots upon stone, throbbing knees from his fall and sore shoulders that were being gripped with vice-like hands, a dead weight.
And then there came a chilling, horrible noise, a cracked, terrified sob that sent a shiver down his spine.
It was not until his captor gave him a firm shake to stop the noise that Teddy Lupin realized that the hideous sound had come from his own lips, muffled by the sack that had been deposited over his head.
Oh Merlin, how could he have been so utterly foolish? So completely naïve? Only a stupid, pathetic little boy would think that former Death Eaters would be after money from members of the Order of the Phoenix. What possible joy would it give them? No, murder was far more satisfying...
They're going to murder me, Teddy thought frantically, they'll line the three of us up and kill us one by one...
His parents could be dead already. They could have been dead for hours, he could be entirely alone...and Merlin...the thought of it!
Suddenly, he was pulled to an abrupt halt and the sack was pulled roughly from his head. Blinking against the sudden light of the room that he now found himself in, Teddy felt a sudden urge to close his eyes again, too petrified at the thought of what he might see.
That was until he heard a familiar voice cry:
"Teddy!"
"Mum!" Teddy blinked his eyes rapidly to clear his vision, just as his captor gave him a firm push forwards and he heard the sound of a door being closed firmly behind him.
The room was square, made of crumbling bricks and to his left Teddy spotted a silent, statuesque figure dressed in black robes, hood drawn firmly over their face. Teddy took a few steps away from the person, who was holding a wand firmly in one hand, and at last laid eyes upon his parents.
Tonks was sat cross-legged up against one wall, Remus' head in her lap, hands raking gently through his hair in an almost rhythmic and bizarrely calm manner. Her pink was hair in disarray, swept back from her face that was far whiter than usual, darkened by an uncharacteristically grim expression. There was something horribly resigned about the way she watched her son stumble hurriedly towards her with his arms spread wide, as if she had been expecting to see him, no matter how much she had hoped otherwise.
When his gaze came to focus upon his father, Teddy's desire to rush over and hug the pair of them with relief suddenly disappeared. The werewolf's face was a lifeless grey colour and he lay motionlessly on the floor, limbs limp and eyes firmly closed.
They've killed my dad, the child thought numbly as he stumbled forward, Remus' ghostly face searing his eyes. He fell to his knees beside his mother, reaching to grab hold of Remus' hand. He's gone, Dad's gone...
As he felt Tonks' arm wrap firmly around his shoulders, tears made the awful scene swim dreadfully before his eyes and Teddy gasped for breath, a strangled noise in his throat.
"Th...they've...they've k...killed Dad!" He cried, voice high with shock. "Mum...they...they killed him!"
Tonks' grip upon him tightened and she flinched at his wailing.
"Teddy..." she began, voice the model of calm, but Teddy did not appear to hear her. He wrenched himself free of her grasp and flopped forwards, burying his face in Remus' shoulder, shaking with tears.
"I...I'm sorry Dad! I'm so sorry..."
"Listen to me, Teddy..."
"If...if I'd woken up...if I'd stayed awake...I...I could've...I'm sorry! Please, Dad! Please don't leave me..."
"Teddy!"
"I...I don't w...want you to be gone!"
"Teddy!"
Remus coughed.
Teddy jumped, sitting bolt upright as he stared down at the wizard in surprise. Over by the door, the dark robed guard let out a low, mocking chuckle.
"I reckon Dad heard you." Tonks observed, arm back around Teddy's shoulders as the child drew in a series of deep, calming breaths, slumping against his mother's side. "Like I was just telling you, love, he's not dead." At the sight of a tar-like substance seeping from the werewolf's lips and down the side of his face, the Head of Aurors reached to wipe it away with the sleeve of her robes, muttering: "Not yet, at least." She glanced round to fix her son with a firm stare. "Listen, Teddy. He's not dead yet, but he doesn't have long." She held out the sleeve of her robes for the boy's inspection, and he glanced down at the dark series of steins upon the scarlet material worriedly. "The poison's filling up his lungs."
"W...what do we do?" Teddy asked, reaching to grasp hold of Remus' hand again. His eyes bulged disbelievingly when Tonks said:
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"There is nothing we can do, love. I'm not a healer and this certainly isn't a hospital."
"So...so we just..."
"There are only three things to be done in a situation such as this." Tonks told him, her voice still eerily calm. "I can still see Mad-Eye waving his stick at the blackboard back when I was doing my first month of training."
"What things?" Teddy asked, and he too felt an odd sort of calm wash over him at the prospect of the clear and precise instructions of Alastor Moody.
"Number One," Tonks recited, free hand coming to rest against Remus' cheek, thumb scuffing his paper-like skin soothingly. "Remain calm."
Well, Teddy thought as Remus let out another series of choking coughs, at least his mother seemed to be managing that one with perfect ease. Wandless, locked up in a dark room with nobody except a hysterical little boy and an armed guard, husband quietly inching his way towards death in one corner, and one would think that she was sat at home on the sofa with a cup of tea, recalling memories of her youth. And Remus had claimed she was melodramatic! Then again, she had been here for a long time and melodrama was far harder to maintain than calmness. It was her job to be calm, after all...
"Number Two," the Head of Aurors continued, eying their surroundings in demonstration. "Constant Vigilance! Obviously."
Teddy turned to stare at her. Had that been a joke? A joke? Here? Now? How in Merlin's name could she...
"And finally Number Three." Tonks stopped gazing aimlessly around the room and reached down to pick up a small fragment of brick that had no doubt fallen from the crumbling walls. Her voice darkened a little as she said: "Never assume that somebody is coming to rescue you."
Teddy hung his head miserably, sniffing as fresh tears threatened to spill down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Mum." he whispered shamefully. "They told me they'd let you both go if I got them a thousand galleons...I should've shown the note to Harry or somebody...they'd have known it was stupid..." he trailed off into silence, sighing heavily.
Tonks carefully set the lump of brick down behind her and reached to pull him into a firm hug, allowing him to bury his face in her robes as she gently rocked the two of them back and forth, careful not to disturb Remus' head in her lap.
"It doesn't matter, love. You only did what you thought was best, you didn't know they were lying..."
"Of course they were! It's obvious!"
"It's obvious now. Everything's obvious when you look back at it, Teddy. Don't you worry, everything is going to be okay."
"But...but...oh Mum!" Teddy whimpered, clinging to the front of her robes in an attempt to make her see sense, for how could she sound so certain? "The Aurors have no idea where we are! I've heard them!"
"Shhh." Tonks closed her eyes, and when Teddy glanced up at her face a small frown had creased her brow as if she were trying to concentrate. "What did I say? Never assume that somebody is going to rescue you. It doesn't matter what Harry and the others are doing. Just...have a little faith."
Teddy immediately stopped crying.
Have a little faith? What did Tonks mean? What did she know that Teddy did not?
Did she have a plan?
Teddy drew away from her side and stared intently at her face, searching for some sort of answer. Her eyes were still firmly closed, lips pursed together in a blank expression that gave no hints away whatsoever.
A soft scraping noise drew the boy's attention and he glanced down at the floor just visible between Tonks' back and the wall. The lump of brick appeared to be drifting across the floor of it's own accord. Teddy watched it come to a halt, before Tonks' hand reached carefully to retrieve it. She set it back in it's original position and, after a brief pause, it began to move again.
You know what that is, don't you? Teddy thought to himself almost excitedly, a glimmer of hope touching the horizon, that's non-verbal, wandless magic!
"Mum..." he began, eyes wide in surprise, only for Tonks to assure him:
"Everything's going to be fine."
Teddy had never seen his mother perform magic without a wand before, least of all in silence. Indeed, such things were more his father's forte, lighting fires in the winter with a simple blink usually earned Remus a slap on the arm as Tonks muttered show off under her breath. It was difficult, complex magic. Only really clever people could manage it, Teddy recalled Tonks telling him some years previously when Remus had summoned the box of corn flakes from across the breakfast table one morning. Clever people, or in your dad's case smug gits with too much spare time on their hands to practice with.
But how long had Tonks been here? One, two, even three days?
It would be fair to say, Teddy realized as the brick fragment made yet another, much faster trip across the floor, that Tonks had had a lot of spare time on her hands.
And maybe he was biased, but Teddy liked to think that his mother counted as one of those clever people. As Ron had said, she wasn't the Head of Aurors for nothing...
Teddy was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of a hideous gagging noise. He looked down, startled at the sight of Remus' face contorting as his mere coughing suddenly worsened, foul black sludge clogging his throat as he attempted to gasp for breath.
Tonks' eyes snapped open wide and she immediately reached to hook her arms around him before heaving him up into a sitting position, his head flopping forwards, eyes still closed as if the only energy he had to spare was consumed by his choking.
"Hang in there, Remus," Teddy heard his mother murmur pleadingly. "Not long now, love, I promise."
The werewolf gave one last violent cough and Teddy gasped to see a flood of black gunge spew from his lips, staining the front of his robes a mottled black and crimson.
"There's blood." Teddy observed worriedly, and again Tonks wiped the mess away with her sleeve and inspected it, the crimson addition shaking her calm facade somewhat, eyes squeezed closed in an attempt to keep a hold of her composure.
"Oh Merlin," she breathed, leaning to rest her chin upon her husband's shoulder with a heavy sigh. "I've been telling you that for hours, haven't I? Not long now, not long now..." she sighed again, turning her face to the side so that she could stare at his motionless face. "Keep on saying it and you won't have not long left...and now Teddy's here..." she trailed off into silence and as she pressed a kiss to Remus' cheek Teddy was worried that there were tears in her eyes. "Remus," she whispered, voice barely loud enough for Teddy to make out. "I'll fix this, I promise...I just...well...what if it goes wrong? I'll only get one chance...fail and they'll kill us on the spot..."
As he watched his mother bury her face in his father's neck, her arms around him hugging him fiercely, Teddy felt a sudden urge to grab hold of her by the shoulder and give her a firm shake. She had been so calm, he'd just started to feel hopeful, almost safe. She couldn't break down now, he needed her strength...
"Listen to me," he heard her whisper, lips pressed to Remus' ear. "Listen to me, Remus, because I'm only going to say this once. I love you. I hope you're listening, I can't keep repeating myself, you'll make me crack." she drew in a steadying breath, as if to ensure she didn't do just that. "And one other thing, Remus, listen because this is really important. Once this is all over, once I've busted us out of here and you get better, you owe me breakfast in bed. Full English...and pancakes...and tea...no, champagne. You got that? I want champagne. And you're going to do the washing up afterwards, too. Okay?"
There was no response.
"Good." she continued anyway, pressing another kiss to his cheek. And with that she carefully shifted to the side and carefully eased him back onto the floor. She got slowly to her feet, legs stiff from sitting for so long, and shrugged the red robes from her shoulders.
Over by the door, their captive watched her closely as she folded them up as a make-shift pillow and tucked them under Remus' head.
"Stay put, Teddy." she practically mouthed, and Teddy opened his mouth questioningly, only to watch apprehensively as she straightened up, turned on her heel and began to stride across the room towards the armed guard in the corner.
Heart hammering in his chest, Teddy shifted closer to Remus' side and watched the scene unfold, frightened when a deep voice demanded:
"Sit down!"
Tonks came to a halt just in front of the man, holding her arms out in an innocent gesture.
"What...a girl can't stretch her legs round here?" she asked incredulously, much to Teddy's shock.
The tip of the man's wand jabbed Tonks threateningly in the throat, and Teddy failed suppress a shriek of:
"Mum!"
Face towards the ceiling, holding her hands up in submission, Tonks took a tiny step backwards.
"Yeah, okay," she agreed rather hurriedly. "You're the boss, right? I'll just...you know..." she took another step backwards...
Crack!
Teddy gasped as a loose brick suddenly came free from the wall, hovering momentarily before plummeting downwards, striking the man hard upon the head. The blow knocked him to the floor and the wand flew from his hand, soaring up into the air before landing triumphantly upon the floor.
As Tonks turned to dash over and snatch up the fallen object, Teddy resisted the urge to let out a whoop of triumph, only to spot the fallen man's hand shoot forward, grabbing Tonks by the ankle and tripping her up. The Auror hit the ground with a sharply exhaled groan, thrusting a hand forward, reaching for the wand...
Only for the dark robed man to push himself upwards just enough throw himself forward, knocking the air from her lungs and pinning her to the ground as he landed flat atop of her, hands fumbling to restrain her arms.
Teddy watched in what seemed to him to be horrifying slow motion as Tonks' fingers, mere milometers from their goal, were yanked away as the man tugged furiously on her arm. She did little to struggle, still gasping for breath from the sudden weight upon her back, and Teddy wanted to scream at her, at everything, as their one chance of escape was slipping away before his very eyes.
